E1 Dynamics

14 Oct 2009 | The Daily T1R

by Jason Schafer

E1 DYNAMICS, a relatively new player in the rotary UPS market competing with the likes of Hitec Power Protection and Piller Power Systems, said that it has won a deal for 16MW (eight 2MW units) of its rotary UPSes for an undisclosed customer in Allen, Texas (approximately 25 miles north of Dallas). While E1 DYNAMICS was unable to reveal the identity of the customer, T1R believes it to be part of the 160,000-gross-square-foot datacenter for Cisco.

T1R thinks this is an extremely significant win for E1 DYNAMICS, doubly so if our suspicions of Cisco being the datacenter owner are correct. To land a major label such as Cisco speaks to the ability of E1 DYNAMICS to meet the price and expertise expectations of such an end user.

E1 DYNAMICS said that it was originally not considered to be in contention with the other two big manufacturers, and at first simply filled a 'competitive bid' spot, with the project initially planned around Hitec as the rotary UPS of choice. What E1 DYNAMICS indicated contributed to its success in being considered a serious contender, and ultimately winning in the end, hinged on its ability to prove itself through a thorough evaluation process by the customer. Additionally, E1 DYNAMICS' small company size likely worked in its favor in the case of this deal as it would be able to give a little more of a personal touch to the bid and proposal process, not relying on any boilerplate material that the others are likely to have.

Cisco's first phase of its Allen datacenter is 160,000 gross square feet, with provisions for dual utility feeds of approximately 23MW each; and Cisco expects the datacenter power needs for the facility to ultimately grow to 40MW. This leaves room for more orders from E1 DYNAMICS not only at this facility, but potentially any others that Cisco may have in its pipeline.

All is not smooth sailing for E1 DYNAMICS, however. T1R thinks that corporate green initiatives will continue to bode well for the flywheel market and push the efficiency points of the traditional static UPS suppliers higher, making the competition that much more heated for the rotary folks. Additionally, the 'static UPS vs. rotary UPS' debate is expected to persist; and long lead times will continue to work against E1 DYNAMICS especially as datacenter supply becomes even more constrained. Despite these challenges, however, T1R thinks this win is noteworthy progress for E1 DYNAMICS, and potentially a sign of more good things to come.